It was an utterly normal night-shift for the 49-year-old minicab driver, Julie Sillitoe. She was ferrying three passengers down Kingsway in central London, a drive she had done more times than she could count.

Earthquakes, cyclones, war, malnutrition, disease, crime, poverty, sexual abuse. It often seems as if it's not really news unless and until it's very grim.